Warranty On Replacement Parts

[Mat-Moo]

Last September the hydraulic clutch on our old espace was replaced due a small piece of plastic breaking, costing us £500 to have it replace... broke again today! The new clutch that went in came with a warranty, although we don't know the duration at the moment. If it's covered under warranty should we expect this work to be done for free?

 

Needed asap new car! Anyone seen any decent Ford smaxs for sale? About 8k

[Guest dinger]

It depends where the part was purchased from,

 

Unipart/partco will honour the labour and origonal part if it is deemed the purchased parts fault. Euro car parts will only warrant the part itself,

 

Not 100% on Main Dealers but I do Know anything bought from BMW will have a 2 year parts and labour warrenty.

 

 

Where was the part bought form? was it fitted at a garage?

 

Cheers

Dave

[philshelton]

just go back and state item not fit for purpose and insist it is fixed foc. if no joy go on a busy day and shout louder and tell every one who enters the problem you have had

[edbond]

Part needs to be fit for purpose, so the part should be covered especially if the original part lastested a significantly longer time (no such thing as a warranty per se, check out sad fart guide on money saving expert site.) something I'm not so up with is the consequential lose side of things, and if you could argue if you only brought the parts that you have suffered this to have it fitted......good luck.

[edbond]

Trading standards are brilliant too, they can do an awful lot to help.

[Guest MarkB]

If a person fits their own parts, then a court will not be very helpful, fit for purpose has no relevance if a part is designed to be fitted by a professional and not a diy'er, if you have fitted it yourself you will only get your parts exchanged if they see fit, if a garage fitted it, then they should organise the replacement wether it be part failure or fitting error. Clutchs come with 12 months warranty.

[Mat-Moo]

Was fitted at a garage, will see what they say tomorrow

[Guest Alan_builder]

Play hard ball with them.

 

You can always take then to the county court.

By the way the county court nearly always finds in favor of the individual, garages don't do well.

Garages normally cave in once you fill in the county court form and file.

 

Give me a PM if you need help Mat.

[Mat-Moo]

Emma gave them a call this morning,without seeing it they dismisssed it stating that the clutch must of gone which caused the failure... common problem apparently! Not sure what effort is worth now

[philshelton]

call them back with the same attitude!!! tell them clutch still there no one has taken it !!! Now are you going to sort the problem or do i call trading standards

[Guest Alan_builder]

Mat, it will cost you about £35 to file County Court Papers.

The garage won't want to go to court the publicity is too bad.

 

@ £500 they have not done the job properly! If the clutch plate was no not fit for purpose they should have said and given the car back broken if you didn't want to pay for a new part.

 

Like Phil says play hard ball. Tell them it their liability and you will be hiring a car at their expense while they argue the toss. Tell them You will start CC proceedings if they don't change their mind in 5 working days or have returned your £500. Tell them you will add interest to your losses at the standard rate.

[Guest MarkB]

Hang on Alan. slow down with the witch hunt....

 

Ok first we need to get some facts straight... Matts original post states a slave and clutch were fitted at the time, your post implies it wasnt..

 

right to the nitty gritty.... bad advice can bite you on the arse.

 

1) forget about hiring a car and presenting them with a bill.... just remember who will be signing the hire agreement, a garage is under no obligation to provide alternative transport whilst a vehicle is being repaired wether it be a warrenty job or a retail job (try and get a courtesy car out of a main dealer its like getting blood out of a stone). ignore that advice.

 

2) add interest to losses? on what basis... this is not a debt this is a service rendered...... so ignore that.

 

3) Rant and rave all you like, agression towards the retail market is becoming very frowned upon..... it will hinder any court claim if the retailer mentions this in court..so ignore that advice.

 

 

My advice..

 

unfortunatly there are many garages out there that treat women like they know nothing and fob them off, Matt, ring the garage yourself explain what has happened and what repairs you had done in september, dates/times/prices.If you are fobbed off again ask who supplied the parts... you can possibly gain more by approaching them direct.

 

check to see if the garage are affiliated with people like the RMI, Bosch, chamber of commerce... if so.... write a letter to them including copies of invoices. (good garage scheme is not included as they are sh1t i would not touch them with a barge pole, you dont have to be a good garage to join their scheme, you just have to purchase forte products.. the scheme is owned by forte.

 

If all the above falls on deaf ears you need to send them a letter stating their refusal to serve, recorded mail only. 5 days is unacceptable, a minimun of 7 days for a reply can be asked for, if there is no response then a county court application can be filed, however you will need a report by a third party to say exactly what has happened and why, it needs to be very specific...... a man tried to sue me for a auto mini he purchased that juddered in low crawl speeds (a characteristic of the ridiculous mini box) his engineers report stated the car needed a new gearbox.... as we stated "why?" unless a casing is broken or damaged a new gearbox is never required..... they could not answer the question... case lost.

 

All the best with the problem Matt, stay calm and get your point across.

[Guest dinger]

Wise words Mark

[Guest Alan_builder]

Ok first we need to get some facts straight... Matts original post states a slave and clutch were fitted at the time, your post implies it wasnt..

 

Sorry Mark, out of context. Mat's reply saying Emma phoned sounded like the clutch was not changed, hence that piece in my reply.

 

Playing hard ball dose not mean one rants and raves, simply state what you want then to do to fix the problem / remedial actions are required, state what you will need to do to carry on with normal life with out undue hardship, you have to mitigate the bill for the garage;

 

I then tried to say fitting a slave cylinder for £500 and not the clutch was OTT, being professional they should have changed the clutch as well or walked away from the job if they considered the clutch not to have a serviceable life. (it seems they did).

 

Having fitted clutch and slave cylinder some 9 months ago the garage are liable not only for the parts but their workmanship as well. Yes we don't know what failed or why. But the garage chose those parts, thus their quality / suitability is down to the garage.

 

Yes if you hire a car you are liable for the cost. You must remember this if your action against the garage fails.

My earlier post didn't say hire a car it said tell the garage.

 

Yes you are correct about about the way garages all to often treat women.

 

My previous post was all about taking a firm stance, making the garage realize you are not going to simply go away because it gets difficult, that you have resolve and have an understanding of the law and County Court procedure. I should also have said put your complaint in writing.

 

Last but not least if you don't ask you don't get.

[megadodo]

A part has to be fit for purpose, it DOES NOT have to fitted professionally, it has to be fitted PROPERLY. It will be up to the supplier of the part to prove otherwise. Anyway, your contract was with installing garage unless you supplied the parts? The installing garage will have to show that the car was driven badly or that the required maintenance was not done to "pass the buck". The question is how long would a clutch "reasonably" be expected to last and I would argue that no reasonable person or court would say less than a year. If the garage knew the part was a known issue, did they warn you? If so then you are stuffed, if not, it's their problem. If it is another problem with the car causing the failure then the garage should have spotted this when they installed the part.Take them to court if they wont be reasonable.